How would you spend ONE MILLION DOLLARS on Long Beach?

Billy Crystal came to Long Beach this past Saturday and graciously presented our city with a check for One Million Dollars. It appears to that the money wasn’t for anything specific, as written in Newsday:

“City Council president Scott Mandel wasn’t sure how the money would be spent, but he said it would go toward recovery and relief efforts still under way eight months after the storm. (Source – Billy Crystal announces $1M gift to Long Beach)

So I figured it might be fun for us to talk about what aspect of Long Beach needs this money the most. Should it be spent on sewer upgrades? More beautification? West Elementary School? The hospital? Straight to the boardwalk rebuild? New sidewalks and pedestrian lighting on Park Ave? Or perhaps everybody’s favorite: Pensions? What else?

20 thoughts on “How would you spend ONE MILLION DOLLARS on Long Beach?”

It’s incredulous there is no plan for the money that was graciously given to our community. Reports state it is going into the City of Long Beach Relief Fund. Who’s in charge of that bank account? Zapson?

That city relief fund appears to be a black hole. Who administers it and why is there no public accounting? Household finance Mgmt 101 would advise taking that windfall and paying down the debt!
Silly of me, to expect common sense.

The check was given on Saturday yet you and the first poster “Community Corruption” seem to be ahead of the conspiracy bandwagon (it is an election year, after all) in writing the funds off as misspent and unaccounted for.

The first thing I would do is get it out of the hands of the city council. I would walk around Long Beach for a day or two and find people who could use 5-10 thousand dollars to help them rebuild. Imagine how many families you can help. Giving it to the city council will help pay the police commissioners salary and overtime for a guy who never graduated college and earns more than Ray Kelly!

People have been making donations to this fund since shortly after the storm. There has been no mention of using it for any project or as grants to help people get back in their homes. Now it has just had an injection of a million dollars. I do not want to see that money frittered away or misplaced. I think a balance sheet should be posted on the website right next to the solicitation showing how much has been donated and how it is expended.

There has been a tremendous amount of money allocated for LB, but people are still struggling and most of the beautification projects have been donated……the city isn’t even maintaining any of the areas people spent a weekend planting. They are all choked with weeds. Streets are still a mess, signs are still missing, curbs are damaged. Ok, the rec center was redone and MLK center, but insurance and FEMA should take care of that.

Everybody who knows anything about how LB operates, knows this is going to be spent on political patronage. Some “feel good” programs that do nothing, headed by a few hand picked $100K “directors” who are employed to oversee the phony projects. This whole Billy Crystal effort is going to be politicized by those running the City, he would have been better off funding private restoration efforts which would have actually seen something done.

Long Beach is one of the few communities which have not applied to FEMA for funds to relieve homeowners of increased property taxes. The Democrats are raising our Long Beach taxes 52%, and many people cannot even live in their homes.

“Long Beach is one of the few communities which have not applied to FEMA for funds to relieve homeowners of increased property taxes.”
Could you elaborate on this FEMA funding that the city did not apply for? You seem upset that the city has not applied for some federal funding….but also complain about taxes. I don’t know about you, Eddie.

FEMA will reimburse local municipalities for lost tax revenues. In the absence of Long Beach applying for such reimbursement, local property taxes must soar to equalize revenue lost through lost assessments. Federal funds come from a variety of sources, none of which rely strictly on real property. So when I and your neighbors win huge assessment reductions and have their local taxes lowered, your tax rate will increase. FEMA reimbursement, like that enjoyed by Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead, will avoid this.

Who is getting huge assessment reductions? I doubt those will materialize for anyone who has restored their homes, and for people who sell damaged homes “as is” – the buyer is either going to renovate or rebuild a new complaint home on those locations, the assessment on those recovered/rebuilt properties will be higher than the house previously there.